January29, 2008

Washington D.C.— Today, the Oversight and
Investigations Subcommittee of the House Armed Services
Committee held a hearing to explore how the challenges
experienced in standing up Provincial Reconstruction
Teams in Iraq and Afghanistan should inform interagency
collaboration efforts on national security
issues.

Today’s expert witnesses included Michèle
Flournoy of the Center for Strategic and International
Studies, Ambassador Carlos Pascual of the Brookings
Institution, Ambassador Barbara Bodine of the Woodrow
Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and Nora
Bensahel of the RAND Corporation.

“Our witnesses’ testimony today
made clear the extent to which interagency reform is not only
a matter of overcoming structural obstacles, but also of
achieving real cultural change within the Departments of
Defense, State, and other U.S. government
institutions,” said Chairman Vic Snyder
(D-AR).

“Secretary Gates has illustrated that
good leadership can effect real change in the interagency
arena,” Snyder continued. “We must continue
to move forward to create the interagency capabilities our
nation needs to secure our future.”

“Today’s hearing offered an
opportunity to hear from experts on what lessons we should
learn from the PRT program and processes for planning and
executing stability operations,” said Rep. Todd Akin
(R-MO).

“One of the challenges this
subcommittee faces as we close out our work on issue is
figuring out how—if at all—the Congress can move
legislation that will ensure that agencies like the
Departments of Defense and State will work in
lockstep—seamlessly applying the tools of national
power,” concluded Akin.

The Subcommittee will hold its next hearing on February
14th, to discuss the steps being taken to learn lessons
from PRTs in Iraq and Afghanistan and better prepare for
and execute future interagency operations. Witnesses
have been invited from the Under Secretary of Defense
(Policy), the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special
Operations/Low Intensity Conflict and Interdependent
Capabilities, the Under Secretary of State for Political
Affairs, and the Director of Foreign Assistance and
Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International
Development.